Making money with blogs

1. 74

   Hauntyposted 14 years ago

   If you want to start a blog, do you think it's a good idea to do it with the purpose of making money? Or is it wiser to start a blog about your passion and see how it plays out?

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      Zsuzsy Beeposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Any which way you look at it you have to have passion...either for the reason of the blog...hobby or whatever...or you have to have passion for making money. If you do not have it you will probably give up before the blog will get anywhere as it takes a lot of work and devotion

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   2. 84

      Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I'd say you have to have a passion. The problem with a blog is that the search engines expect them to be regularly updated. You're going to have to keep coming up with new material week after week, year after year.  If you're not passionate about a subject, it's very hard to keep up that kind of commitment IMO.

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   3. 65

      darksideposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Starting a blog I'd recommend doing something you're passionate about. livewithrichard has good advice, don't monetize it yet.
      
      Find your audience, build that audience.
      
      And when you do monetize it, don't fret over the cents. Solid foundations take time to develop. Being passionate about the subject will help get through those tough times.
      
      If a person goes straight to "making money" too often they try and figure out what's the most profitable. And it won't be something that they're interested in. I see too many blogs about 'making money online' by people who have no idea on how to make money online. As they say, it's the blind leading the blind.

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2. 58

   weblogposted 14 years ago

   It's all upto one's personal choice.

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   1. 74

      Hauntyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      If the purpose is to finally make money, which approach is more efficient IYO?

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         weblogposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Basically Content, frequency of posting/updating, the site/blog's visibility in search engines and then traffic such things do matter. Some research in SEO may help more.

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3. 77

   frogdroppingposted 14 years ago

   Haunty - if you're objective is to make money then aim to make money.
   
   Run it as a business. Find a niche and blog about it. You're an intelligent man so shouldn't have any problems with that side of things.
   
   It may be harder, as in you'll probably end up with a subject you don't know much about, but you're not afraid of hard work I expect.
   
   Or are you

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   1. 74

      Hauntyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks, frog! I'm afraid I'm not that intelligent. And even it I were it has nothing to do with success IMO.

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4. 74

   Hauntyposted 14 years ago

   Zsuzsy - That's a very good point, thank you. I began reading on the subject and I find it's actually a lot of work especially if your blog is not in English. In Hungary, there are less quality blogs and I'm in the process of finding them. We'll see how much passion I have...
   
   weblog - thanks. All of that matters.
   
   Do you think it's a good idea to have rss feeds? Because if you have them people might just read it and newer actually visit the blog.

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      weblogposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, but give them simply summary in feeds and not full content.

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         Hauntyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks

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5. 56

   wrenfrost56posted 14 years ago

   My blog is related to one of my websites (smashbreeze)and a forum this is a great way of trebling traffic and exposure. my website comes up three times on the first page on all the the search engines. (google, bing and yahoo) smashbreeze try it!

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      Hauntyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Cool. What is your keyword that gives the first page result?

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6. 56

   wrenfrost56posted 14 years ago

   find a word that when search engined has no results, mine is smashbreeze and I am currently playing with a few other ideas. Create some hype on forums by talking about your new website and then add tags like big, best, new, unique, fun that kind of stuff.
   Link all your sites and pages together viola!

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7. 68

   lrohnerposted 14 years ago

   I have 3 blogs, all started around a passion. When I started them, I didn't even know what 'keyword research' or 'backlinks' were.
   
   Cut to today: One does okay -- a couple thousand people a month pretty steadily. One turned out to be unexpectedly seasonal, so it gets only 2,000+ visitors per month in the summer, more in the fall and spring, and goes through the roof from October through the winter. And then, one that I haven't even posted on for more than a year and only have 50 pages on it sends me well over 12,000 visitors per month and makes me money every day. Oh, and I rank #1 for the high-paying search term AND Martha Stewart owns the domain AND -- did I mention -- I rank #1 for it! Go figure!

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      wrenfrost56posted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Great job! I used mine just as a way of getting my ideas out there and so far so good.

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8. 74

   Hauntyposted 14 years ago

   sure thing. thanks for the suggestions.
   
   congrats on your sites!
   
   Marisa - yes, that's why I think it's always wise to write much when you've got the inspiration. then you have material to schedule to appear later on the blog

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      wrenfrost56posted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Good luck! Like your profile picture by the way.

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      1. 74

         Hauntyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks. The same goes for yours.

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9. 73

   livewithrichardposted 14 years ago

   I would say start your blog and try to get a following before you try to monetize it.  Pick a niche and become the expert for that niche and let your followers decide when its time to monetize.  Once they are regular visitors then you know you have a decent chance to convert their page views to purchasing views and I'm not talking the few cents you get from Google. 
   
   You have to give your viewers something and keep giving.  Zig Ziglar, one of the greatest salesmen ever, has quoted "you can achieve all you want in life, IF you help enough other people to achieve what THEY want in life."

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   1. 74

      Hauntyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks, Richard. I think I'm going this way.

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10. 62

    Mac Missionposted 14 years ago

    Richards answer is really helpful.

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